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Ariel
] The holographic projection - a ship's daemon - is about the size of a large cat. Large, lemur-like eyes, gold and luminescent green like a beetle's shell, peer out curiously from a dark-gray furred face, framed by mask-like white markings. Two large, shell-like ears twitch alertly, poised on either side of its head, and long, fine whiskers drape like a mustache from a stubby snout. Its body is lean and narrow, its forelegs almost comically longer than its hind legs, and wide folds of skin connect the two in between. A short, stubby tail emerges from the base of its spine, ending in a wide, diamond-shaped base. An artificial intelligence system developed by Kittianna Trevelyan, it was selectively installed on a handful of ships as a ship's daemon; the decision of where it goes based primarily upon Kit's trust of the ships' captains. Its abilities and personality were purposely limited by Kit, who did not trust that a completely logical system - whose actions, by definition, could never be predicted by biological beings with 100% accuracy - would always take the most desired route according to a live crew. Thus, it is barred from dictating a ship's actions and does not have the freedom to act autonomously from an order. It is not able to navigate the ship beyond providing suggested routes, to fire weapons, or even alter or destroy data stored on the ship's computer without explicit authorizations. However, it does have substantial access to all ship's systems; and can take defensive steps such as raising and monitoring shields, implementing shipboard security measures including attacking invaders, and carrying out general functions over systems that an engineering console would preside over. As the number of Ariel Systems began to expand, there became little doubt that they maintain some internal network amongst themselves; every so often exchanging information and updating each other's databanks with the latest occurrences. The Ariel Two units have often referred to events that only happened in the presence of the other Ariels. How much of this extra communication between each other is available to the other commanding captains is questionable; their revelation, perhaps, left solely to the questioned Ariel's discretion. Ariel One Installed aboard the UKT Gray Horse, it was one of the few Ariel systems that Kit allowed to remain behind with a ship after she has moved on; transferring its loyalties to Innokentevna, the Gray Horse's captain. The Gray Horse was thought to have been irretrievably lost with the attacks on Ungstir during the Phyrrian War, but while tracking down the IND Jackal in August 3008, Kit located Ariel Two in an altered form, which claimed that it had been monitoring a distress signal originating from Ariel One. Mika Tachyon enlisted the aid of the IND Raider and the IND Laughing Fox's crews to track down and potentially salvage the Gray Horse with Ariel Two's directions. The ship was eventually found in the midst of Ungstir's shattered remnants...torn and broken, with the fast-fading Ariel One still trying to defend the remaining scraps of its home and the bodies of its crew. Using the last sputters of power remaining to it, Kit ordered all backup logs and files to be transferred to Ariel Two, and then the original incarnation of Ariel One was finally allowed to rest along with the ship. Ariel Two Installed aboard the IND Jackal as a gift for Mika Tachyon, it was seized along with the ship during the Phyrrian War. While Kit had originally assumed that it had been safely scrapped along with the Jackal by the Odarites that impounded it, it was later discovered that Ariel Two's presence had attracted the attention of the Overmind, who confiscated the ship. The ship itself was scrapped, but the Ariel system was copied and combined with Phyrrian programming in experimental configurations, then installed in Taskers that had been modeled upon the appearance of the daemon's holographic image. Four units were created and sent with other Taskers on the mission to raze Ungstir, armed with such offensive weaponry as mounted plasma cannons. During the battle over Ungstir, Ariel One - installed in the UKT Gray Horse - began to emit a proprietary signal that was to alert any sister Ariel systems nearby of its distress. The SOS triggered a previously buried program module within the four Ariel Two tasker units, and reasserted Kit's original prime directives, causing them to break with the Overmind. However, this effectively stranded them on Avalon, the last location where they had been dispatched by the Phyrrian fleet. After the war and with Mika's return, Kit was asked to locate the Jackal once more. After tracking down the bureaucratic trail leading to the Jackal's scrapping, Kit stumbled upon communications traded between the Overmind and an entity claiming the Jackal's registration code - essentially orders from the former demanding the return of the Jackal, with the latter sending its refusal to comply each time. Tracking down the point of origin of the Jackal-labeled transmissions with the help of the IND Raider's crew, they discovered the four erstwhile Taskers - a strange amalgamation of the Jackal, Ariel Two, and Phyrrian technology. Though they all claim to be as one, the original Ariel Two system and the Jackal, the four units have developed distinct characteristics from each other according to observation logs that had been recorded in the Jackal's original databanks (though observations of which individuals, specifically, has not been explicitly stated). To help identify the physically identical individuals, Kit had different colors painted upon them - war-stripes across muzzle, face, and shoulders in the colors crimson, blue, green, and yellow; correlating to the designations Epsilon, Alpha, Beta, and Sigma respectively. Much to Kit's chagrin, Ariel Two's favored designation for her is "Mother". The Overmind For a time, Beta had chosen to travel with The Outcast's crew. However, Ruin at one point had visited the Overmind, looking to exchange information, and taken the Outcast with him. Beta was subsequently taken by the Overmind and reprogrammed - unbeknownst to Ruin, its entire personality and core programming was replaced. Once she learned of this, Kit immediately began to deconstruct the wartasker's new programming in an attempt to pinpoint its priorities and search for a way to reassert its original personality. Unfortunately, Beta's new instructions were triggered before she was able to do so - in the subsequent battle as Beta tried to destroy the other Phyrrian-Ariel hybrids, Beta was destroyed, Alpha nearly so, and the Kamikaze suffered major interior damage. The Outverse When their home universe imploded due to Kip Caspar's attempts to return "home" as a Kamir, only Sigma made the migration with the IND Kamikaze safely. Epsilon had been aboard the Junkyard when it was lost, and Alpha's whereabouts had been unknown. Millenium Epsilon One of the refugees from other damaged universes to arrive in Hiverspace was the Zero Gravitas...and with it, arrived Epsilon - one which had survived a thousand years beyond what the original had known. Currently, it recognizes Sabrina Alington, captain of the Gravitas, as its controller. No other Phyrrian Ariels from its time had survived. Quotes Epsilon somehow manages a vague air of exasperation in the long looks it levels upon the captain's closed door and Aadzrian before simply slumping back down to the deck...and rolling idly upon its back, optical sensors half-lidded while its limbs flop loosely close to its body. "The networks here are sporadic and limited in scope. Mother should have sent Alpha instead." Danger (dng) pages: HAHAHAHAHA From afar, Danger (dng) tubkittys: 'Awww maaaaan! Why me?!' Ariel Three Installed in the IND Raider as a favor to Mika Tachyon when she had been retrofitting a scrapped hull into a new ship. Since Mika ended up giving the Raider as a gift to Vadim Tostanavich, Kit had made the Ariel system's installation conditional upon Mika's continued presence aboard the ship and/or her confidence in the ship's captain. This condition was broken when Mika officially left as co-captain of the ship, yet Ariel Three still remains aboard. Though Kit has not bothered to divulge to anyone her reasons for allowing the Ariel's presence to continue - she has been quite blunt on occasion on her lackluster opinion of Vadim's captainship - there is little doubt that she has not simply forgotten about retrieving one of her creations. Ariel Four Installed in the IND Kamikaze, Kit's personal runabout. Jointly configured by both herself and Ariel Two, it has been given a slightly different set of operating parameters from the default configuration of an Ariel system. Where exactly it deviates - if any such deviations are even detectable in daily operations - Kit has been keeping close-mouthed about. Category:Intelligence Systems